MF Doom - The Drop

Headed out to Mainz early to get a workout in before practice.

For time:

25 squats

400m run

25 pushups

400m run

25 burpees

400m run

25 squat jumps

400m run

completed in 9:22

10 reps of each, with a 3kg medicine ball:

overhead squats, russian twists, chops

deadlifts, cleans

pushups, both hands on ball

pushups, one hand on ball

overhead split squats (ball in one hand)

wall balls

situps with throw/catch off the wall

Practice was a stack timing drill, a marking drill to stop overhead throws only, and some more zone practice/scrimmage. Then "full" 5v5 scrimmage. A little more trouble today, playing the zone D...zone O is pie. And I love pie. Happy Thanksgiving.

Jay-Z - Allure (Ratatat Remix)

Went to Berlin for a few days. Back now.

10 L-hang pullups

2x5 knee-tuck pullups

Indoor beginner's practice in Mainz, where I adapted to suit my needs. We did maybe 30 minutes of throwing, so I worked on pivot-to-throw at varying speeds with accuracy. During the drill (simple throw to simple out-and-in cut) I pretended the throw was break-side, and tried to refine the pace on my throws. Worked on some skying--found myself getting good position to get the D a lot, but was having trouble making the catch. During the scrimmage, I was all about defense...but this was easy, because we were mixed and heavy with beginners. So I took it as a challenge to maintain intensity regardless of opponent.

MF Doom - Vaudeville Villain

30 minutes stretching

10 minutes foam rolling

Then I headed out to Mainz for an indoor practice with a mixed group of guys, with the ladies practicing on the other half of the indoor surface. It wasn't turf, it was more like rubber-coated concrete with traction slightly better than a basketball court, but it made for very few layouts. We did a couple drills practicing the timing of cuts out of a vertical stack (of four people, because indoor is 5v5), and the most glaring and immediate difference that separates them from all Ultimate I've ever played is the plain ubiquity of blades and hammers. But mostly blades. Holy shit, do they throw a lot of blades. And I'm not talking about curved hucks, I'm talking about razors at every opportunity...I guess the high ceiling, small space and lack of wind make these more viable, but I did notice that at least sometimes they're just too lazy to throw a flick. Oh, and we spent 5 minutes working on throwing/catching blades, and then another 5 minutes on throwing/catching short passes--including throws with the off hand.

In any case, after the drills we moved into 5v5 scrimmage. I tried to cover the ones that looked like they knew what they were doing (which was not everybody, as this was not the "advanced" practice), and held my own. I threw a bunch of goals (threaded a few needles, needless to say) and got a couple D's. There was a good deal of clam thrown into the scrim, even when the O got close to the endzone, again a strategy perhaps viable because of the tightness of the space. I preferred the directional-man, though I found myself getting open either way. Subbing wasn't a problem because there were only 14 of us there, and by the end my left knee starting complaining a bit.

Perhaps the weirdest thing is that the guy running practice spoke exclusively auf Deutsch, but I was able to keep up with just a little help from the various English-speakers there (including one American). It helped that I have a solid background in strategy, though...it seemed like clam was a new concept to some of the guys. I could only understand perhaps 30% of what was said, but between that and gestures and watching the other dudes, I could pretty much figure it all out.

Afterwards they invited me to have a beer with them at the Kneipe next door, and I enjoyed my Köstritzer Schwarzbier as well as the conversation--though, admittedly, most of the German flew over my head.

Kanye West - Get 'Em High (Ratatat Remix)

"Cuz we don't wanna hear that weak shit no more."

Half Tabata intervals: 20sec on, 10sec off

Burpees: 7, 8, 7, 7

Pushups: 16, 14*, 11*, 11*

Squats: 20, 21, 20, 20

Abs: 18c, 14v, 18c, 14v

(no rest in between exercises)

*means girl pushups, because my chest is sore from yesterday's pullups and one set of legit pushups tapped me out. Yes, I realize that is weak shit. For abs, "c" means crunches with legs on a chair and "v" means V-ups. I picked half Tabatas for today because it was the last workout for my "base" phase (other than tomorrow's movement prep work), why not throw in some intensity. Next phase is Strength, so I'll be backing off the distance for runs and therefore bumping up the pace. The plan is to mix up the body weight workouts. Some will focus on explosivenes, others on heavier "lifting" by adding to my body weight and making form a priority. We'll see how it goes.

A Perfect Circle - Weak and Powerless

3x5 L-hang pullups

2.3km in 11:30 (1.4mi at 8:13 pace)

(0.7 in 4:00, 0.9 in 5:00, 0.6 in 2:30)

Later, after a nap...

5 L-hang pullups

8 L-hang pullups

3 L-hang pullups, 2 L-hang pullups

2x10 knees to elbows

Green Day - Castaway

Interval run, timed by a playlist on the iPod. I was running along the length of Im Wiesengrund, a relatively level street, from the apartment to a corner 480m away. I tried to remember how far I got during each interval, then used the distance measuring tool on Google Maps, but there only distance I'm sure about is the total. Though the pace I recorded throws me off, because I didn't think I was in shape enough to do that...

1400m in 5:08 (Refused - New Noise)

450m in 2:59 (Ratatat - Spanish Armada)

1450m in 5:14 (Flipsyde - US History)

400m in 2:49 (Jay-Z - Sunshine, Ratatat Remix)

1450m in 5:06 (Young Buck - Stomp, Ratatat Remix)

430m in 3:11 (Jose Gonzalez - Down the Line)

1400m in 4:42 (Streetlight Manifesto - Here's to Life)

Total: 6.98km in 29:09

or 4.34mi at an average pace of 6:43

Young Jeezy ft. Bun B - Over Here (Ratatat Remix)

5 rounds for time:

(5 pullups*

10 burpees

15 pushups**

20 squats)

Completed in 8:00.

*First round I did L-hang pullups.

**Only 10 pushups in the last two rounds.

Somewhere in the middle, a nice old lady stopped me to ask what I was doing and why. I had just finished a round of burpees, was a bit winded and couldn't really tell what she was saying. I know she asked what sport I was doing it for, so I told her Ultimate Frisbee. She looked puzzled for a moment, but after I repeated it she seemed to know what I was talking about. She nodded and smiled and then went on her way, so I went on with my workout.

I hate how bad I am at pushups.